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Quitting Zoloft. Advice or insights?
Hello, I’ve been taking between 25 and 50 milligrams Zoloft for about 14 years for anxiety. It helps but I’ve become increasingly worried about the long term effects. I have quit cold turkey and tried tapering off several times and I always return within a couple of weeks because of the withdrawal symptoms.. dizziness, crying, fogginess, and agitation mostly. The agitation is the worst part. I find myself so irritable I can’t bear it. And then I feel horrible for having been short with my husband or family. But I struggle with if I need medication and worry about the long term side effects. I wonder if it has changed who I am. I’d like to be off it. My doctor has also prescribed .25 mg Xanax which I rarely use. It gives me comfort just to know it’s there if I need it. Any advice or insight for stopping Zoloft? And thoughts on if taking Zoloft for this long changes your personality and who you are? Thank you!
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@rachael24
I started zoloft in 2004, took it to control moods, and in 2014 I tried tapering off over 3 months from 25mg. The withdrawal from it sucked, but I got past it. Had a wonderful experience being off of it finally and thought all was good until 9 months later I all of a sudden started having heart palpitations and high blood pressure issues, which I have never had, plus symptoms of thyroid problems. Doctor sent me to have thyroid testing and nothing showed crazy to explain my symptoms. My symptoms got so bad that I was having total autonomic failure and almost went to the ER. My primary told me that I needed to try taking tge Zoloft again, which I did because I was terrified at that point. After taking one, the next morning all my symptoms subsided except the high heart rate and blood pressure issues. Now on Propranolol and still on Zoloft but tapering off over the past two years VERY slowly. Hoping to be completely off of it soon, praying I can get off of the Propranolol too! Perfectly healthy until I was put on Zoloft! My cholesterol and triglycerides are up while on Zoloft too because the drug binds to the same receptors as those two, so I need to be off it! The doctor doesn’t understand or believe me that Zoloft is the cause of all of this, but I have absolute proof! I pray everyone finds the answers they need!
@vfrifr
I just recently tried going from 150mg to 125mg and was doing ok until about day 7. I started getting heart palpitations like crazy. It sent me into an absolute spiral! It scared me so badly I don’t know if I’ll ever try to lower my dose again.